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"When bad men
combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
-- Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)
Dear Traditional Values Supporter,
It’s something we all know but are almost afraid to say. Religious discrimination is on the rise in America. Christians of every denomination are being attacked for their faith while
this Obama administration is going out of its way to accommodate
Islamists and secular norms – temporary allies in the fight against our
Judeo-Christian culture. Need evidence? With the recent government
shutdown, Catholic chaplains were refused entry onto American military bases to say Sunday Mass or administer the sacraments. Edmund Burke was never more right.
While America has been focused on important matters concerning the
budget and economy, we have turned away from the very real and mortal
threat eating at the very soul of our nation – namely the threats
against our religious liberties and rights of conscience. Never in the long history of this great nation of ours have the American people been more under threat. Indeed, the very idea
of being an American is under siege. Once we stood for self-reliance, thrift, hard work, family and faith.
Today? Look around and we see entitlement, waste, laziness, decadence
and worldly values more centered around pleasure than the things of God.
This is the moral rot we stand to pass on to future generations unless
we fight to preserve what is best about this great nation of ours.
Who would have thought that our military chaplains – an institution
founded by General George Washington himself – would be under threat?
But it’s not just our rights of religious freedom that are at risk:
- In California, AB 1266 will force every locker room, shower, and bathroom to go gender neutral
– allowing teenage boys to wander in to girls showers and confused
parents to force classes as young as Kindergarten to recognized their
transgendered child as the opposite sex – or run the risk!
- Nationwide, Catholic chaplains were refused entry on U.S. military bases
during the federal government shutdown for Sunday services, the first
time this had every happened during any one of the 74 government
shutdowns in our nation’s history.
- Moreover, U.S. Army terrorist training classes are identifying
Catholics and Evangelical Christians as potential terror threats even as Islamist terror cells continue to gain strength.
- With
the recent government shutdown, our nation’s military veterans who
fearlessly stormed the beaches of Tarawa and Normandy were greeted with
“Barrycades” put up by the U.S. National Park Service – which didn’t
stand a chance against a group of World War II veterans!
- Nationwide, new curriculum standards such as
Common Core are going directly after the family, dumbing down
our public education system and turning our children into informants
against our families and our Christian way of
life.
But our friends at the World War II Memorial in Washington showed us the path forward. The walls and barriers around us are mental at the end of the day. These regulations cage us and will cage our faith only if we allow them to do so! Like the Christian martyrs of old, we need to start standing tall for what we believe. Lives of example and Christian witness are only one part of the equation,
but playing for the long game and realizing that we have taken 100
steps into
the woods that will require us to take 100 steps to get back out – we
need the wisdom and skill necessary to lead America out of the moral
wilderness. Traditional Values Coalition (TVC)
has had over four and a half decades of experience sounding this battle
cry. When we first started, the battle might have seemed easy -- almost
pointless. Such a thing was unimaginable to most Americans back then.
Who would have thought that America would ever force the government to
recognize homosexual marriages, much less redefine marriage? Or that America’s military chaplaincy would be under the threat of being demoted to mere “social workers” by the federal
government? Or that Christian values would be under persecution by the government that Christian values once founded?! I am writing from my heart at this point. I have nothing else to say or write. But I need to know whether or not you will stand with
Traditional Values Coalition going in to 2014, because the battles you
and I face today are the battles that are going to define a generation
of Americans to come. Yes, I know it’s easy to feel discouraged.
And yes, I know that it’s very easy to give up, head back to church on
Sunday, and leave the world to God and man and itself and society… it’s
very easy to turn our backs and give the whole mess back to God and ask
Him just to deal with it. ...but I don’t believe that’s what you and I are called to do. ...and I don’t believe the race is over. ...and I know in my heart that our Christian values are worth the fight. ...and I know that the idea of America is worth championing. ...and I believe that you feel the same way. ...and my faith tells me that you and I can do great things in the service of Christ. ...and we can and will reclaim this nation of ours. ...but we will ONLY do this if we are united in both prayer and deed!
Remember in 2 Chronicles 20? When the vast multitudes of the Moabites
came from present-day Jordan into the Kingdom of Judah, the people were
frightened then. Many felt as if they could give up – that the power of
Moab was too great. What did God tell
Jehoshaphat?
And
he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: ‘Do not be afraid
nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not
yours, but God’s. – 2 Chronicles 20:15
...and
that
is my message for you. Are we not Judah? Are the problems that surround
us not one vast multitude seeking to stamp out our American heritage?
Our Christian liberties? I am convinced
that the vast majority of the American people are not aware of the grave
and mortal danger our religious freedoms are under today.
When they are made aware of the litany of abuses committed by the Obama
administration, the resentment will be so intense and so real, there
will be a groundswell of outrage from the American public – one that the
Obama administration and the media will not be able to ignore.
The
media wasn’t able to ignore our veterans tearing down the "Barrycades"
outside our national monuments. They won’t be able to forever ignore the
violations against our religious liberties. These are just a few
recent examples:
- The Army labeled
Evangelical Christians and Catholics as extremists along with al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the KKK.
- The Pentagon put an end to military-themed Bibles.
- A West Point study linked pro-life groups to terrorism.
- The U.S. military ordered crosses removed from chapels.
- The Department of Defense ordered crosses removed from lapels and hats.
- An Air Force officer was ordered to take his Bible off his desk.
- A
soldier was reprimanded for serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at a private
party celebrating his promotion and the Defense of Marriage Act.
- A painting including a Bible verse was removed from an Air Force dining hall.
I
need your help exposing and pushing back against these instances of religious discrimination against Christians in America.
Traditional Values Coalition can raise awareness like no other organization in the country, with 43,000 churches and ministries surrounding our work.
Best of all, we can get pastors and ministers in touch
directly with some of the most important power brokers in Washington. No
other group has the sort of access that Traditional Values Coalition
has carefully built over the last four and a
half decades.
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